Author
Topic: Kosso wood! (Read 4835 times)

I was at a lumber yard in NJ last weekend looking to add some additional species of wood samples for a commission I'm drawing up, and I came across this wood that I had never seen or heard of before: Kosso wood. The lumber yard manager didn't have many details about how they had come across it, only that they got it at a really good price. They have a boatload, and are providing it in dimensional S4S, 4/4 and 8/4 at less than $5 a board foot! I picked up 4 boards for myself just for the heck of it, and will probably go back for more soon.

There's some info about it online -- apparently it's sourced mainly from Nigeria -- but even in the wood database there's only a stub article: http://www.wood-database.com/kosso/

There's a tremendous color variation in it's raw state, from a kind of fruit loops rainbow pattern to a striated olive color, as you can see in the three samples I have here finished in Rubio Monocoat. It's a fairly knotty wood, but the knots actually add to its character, as they concentrate this kind of blood-red sap that adds a vivid splash of color to the board.

Has anyone come across this wood before or tried to use it for anything?

Festool USA does not pre-approve the contents of this website nor endorse the application or use of any Festool product in any way other than in the manner described in the Festool Instruction Manual. To reduce the risk of serious injury and/or damage to your Festool product, always read, understand and follow all warnings and instructions in your Festool product's Instruction Manual. Although Festool strives for accuracy in the website material, the website may contain inaccuracies. Festool makes no representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness or timeliness of the material on this website or about the results to be obtained from using the website. Festool and its affiliates cannot be responsible for improper postings or your reliance on the website's material. Your use of any material contained on this website is entirely at your own risk. The content contained on this site is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

I've never heard of it before either. I tend to like wild grain as a feature in projects, and these boards certainly have it. The color variation is interesting - I think I like the red tones a little better.

I still have four Koa boards in my collection that I got from a lumber yard about 40 years ago. At the time they were less than walnut - maybe $1-2 / board foot. I didn't know what I was looking at, but I thought they looked nice. In terms of sheer rate of return, they have probably been a better investment than anything else I've ever bought.

Every time I returned to Boards and Beams last winter for other wood, I made sure to pick up a few more boards of Kosso as well, until the stock they had on hand was completely depleted. The result is that I have built up a huge reserve of this stuff that is now stored in my loft waiting for the right projects. Just last week I finally decided to break into the pile to do a stand-alone bathroom shelf for my wife, and so I thought I'd share what the wood looks like when finished on an actual project.

It's got some truly spectacular knot and maelstrom effects, which you can play around with even more if you're doing curves, as I did with the top of the shelf. Finish is Surfix heavy duty oil.

I have a commission to do a window seat bench starting next month for which I'm going to try to convince the client to use Kosso.

Nice almost Zebra-like grain, but with more subtle darks. I expected a little more red color from the pics above. Nice use of knots/inclusions.

For a spreading tree with a max height of 30', I would expect a lot of interesting grain direction. Given the list of local uses given in Wikipedia (thanks @SRSemenza ), I'm not surprised it made the CITES list. It always hurts a little to see charcoal high on the use list for a good woodworking wood. It's nice to see that there are other motivations for planting it though.

Glad you were able to get a supply. Given that the wood was available, I rather see it go to a craftsman who will take the beauty of each piece into account than to a box of engineered flooring.

Don't want to be a debbie downer but I'd like to through in FSC certification and ethical aspects of working with wood when I hear "good a really good deal from Nigeria". Could be FSC, could be smuggled wood!

I haven't read any conversation on this topic here on FOG, I'll do a search and see how the community deals with this issue.

Beautiful stuff though! I like the sample on the right that has more brown.

Used to live in Hawaii and the hardwood lumber stores were just incredible and $$$$

Logged

helper: i used a festool "circular saw" to do something simple and it made it really hard

I may have used it. Frankly, I don't totally remember the name, but it was something like that. I recall that I had to look up the name and found little info. Does this look like the same? Very good to work with.

@Steve1 that very well could be some. There's a lot of variation in the color, from an almost fruit loops rainbow to a shimmering golden brown, as well as variation in the grain patterns due to all the knots. The sap has a reddish tinge, such that the knots can look like they're bleeding.

I may have used it. Frankly, I don't totally remember the name, but it was something like that. I recall that I had to look up the name and found little info. Does this look like the same? Very good to work with.